The wiggle mama...and others

People do the oddest things while driving...perhaps they think they are invisible. This portly mama in front of me, on his vespa/chetak was chugging along at 40 kmph when he suddenly did an excellent butt wiggle. So out of the blue was it that for a second my cousin, S and I weren't sure if we had actually seen the wiggle. A glance at each other told us we hadn't hallucinated. (UGH! Imagine, hallucinating about plump mamas doing a butt wiggle).

I do meet some interesting mamas don't I? Ohhhhhhh! An absolute gem of the mama breed was the one I met in Toronto....classic mama, he was.

This was way back in the good old days...2007. I was visiting Buffalo and Toronto in the height of tourist season - January. I was staying with family (as always). [An aside: whoever came up with that line about mallus in every corner of the world got it wrong. The original usage had to be extended R.S. Mani clan. This was for the those in the family or as they say in TN, "those in the family way"].

Anyhow, I was staying with family, having a great time freezing while exploring downtown Toronto and getting very familiar with every Starbucks in the area. One day, my aunt said we had to go for a seemandam- 'the loading of bangles and eating pure carbs' ritual for expectant mothers. So we dutifully went to some TamBram (Iyengar specifically) house nearby. And there I was introduced to a mama (more a thatha really) who had been dying to meet me. His family was from the same village as my dad and his dad knew my granddad....and so on. So he sat me down and went into an explanation (for the benefit of others seated nearby) of how we hail from the same village and how my granddad had 9 kids and one was a doctor.....and then he says, one of her (ie me) uncles scandalously got married to an....IYER! Gasp, the horror of it! I kept trying to interrupt and say, ahem..actually it wasn't my uncle, but my dad.

Gotta love the mamas. Just gotta.